Chapter 19

The next day, Haruko wasted little time locking herself up in her work room, while Sayuri took everyone else to the same store that Ayane had gotten her doll body from.  Shizuka took the opportunity to give Ayane her first training session by having her ride balancing on Sayuri’s shoulder.  It was trickier than it seemed: at their tiny scale, the up-and-down motion of Sayuri’s shoulder with each step felt much larger, leading Ayane to wobble more than a bit as she attempted to stay standing upright.  Shizuka for her part remained perfectly still as she rode on Keiko’s shoulder in kind, monitoring her student’s performance.

“Focus on your center of gravity, Cocoa.  Keep that in place and the rest will follow.” the Fubuki said, using the alias Ayane had decided on for her robotic self.  Sayuri had suggested they theme themselves after foods, something that had caused Ayane no small amount of blushing when Sayuri had picked Strawberry and Haruko had followed with Peppermint: she knew exactly where those names came from.  A little nudging from Keiko had goaded her into following suit with her own alias, embarrassing though it was.

The store was busier than their last visit, with a number of clients there acquiring support parts for the upcoming tournament.  Ayane had considered getting some, but Shizuka had recommended against it, saying she should master her native weapons before burdening herself with any others.  Instead the only thing she was there for was to see if Factory Advance’s motorbikes were available.  Keiko, meanwhile, was there to make a rather different sort of purchase.

She felt the connection immediately when she saw it.  There she lay, asleep in her glass case next to the one Ayane’s doll had come from.  Her long, blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, her face dotted with red marks that gave her an almost foxlike appearance.  Her figure was undeniably curvaceous, rivaling Sayuri’s shell, and next to her in her case lay a bow almost as long as she was tall.  She was majestic.

Keiko smiled down at her sleeping other self.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cinnamon.”

<><><>

To Ayane’s disappointment, she couldn’t ride her new motorcycle home.  Like most support vehicles that Factory Advance sold, it had its own power supply to save on the battery of the AI girl riding it, a major advantage over Sayuri and Haruko’s built-in motorcycles.  Said power supply didn’t come pre-charged, so it would be at least an hour before she could drive it for the first time.
Haruko was still downstairs when they returned, her shell asleep and leaning against the back wall of the work room.  On the table sat another headband, like Ayane’s own but in white instead of red, propped up on a number of Mr. Chargers folded into tables.  Underneath on her back was Haruko, making adjustments with a tiny set of tools.

“Haruko!  We’re back!”  Sayuri called as they arrived, the new doll in hand.

“Just a minute!”  Haruko slid out from under the headband and sat up while Sayuri laid the box on the table and opened it up for her, allowing Haruko to come over and examine the girl sleeping within.  The Hresvelgr let out a whistle as she looked Keiko’s doll up and down, her gaze lingering particularly long on the chest.

“ASRA’s definitely appealing to a particular market, huh?” Haruko said with a smirk, folding her arms under her own bust.

Sayuri groaned.  “You perv.  Keiko’s a sweet girl; I’m sure that’s not why she picked it.”

Haruko’s smirk just grew wider.  She hadn’t caught all of the previous night’s events, but she’d seen enough.

“Alright, let me just install the dummy CSC, charge her up, and we’ll be all set.”  Haruko popped open the Megami’s chestplate, revealing the empty slot for the crystal-studded disc that contained an AI girl’s primary memory and personality.  She aligned the newly-made dummy disc carefully with the slot, making sure it locked snugly in place before closing the hatch.

“Okay, boys,” the Hresvelgr called over her shoulder to the Mr. Chargers not currently serving as furniture, “give her some juice!”

The boxy robots promptly obeyed, prompting Sayuri to blush and turn away from the sight.  Even if it was with an empty doll, wired charging was just too lewd.

<><><>

Ayane was back in her human form by the time they were done, having brought her ninja body downstairs along with its charging cradle and her headband.  She and Keiko were sitting out in the living room together with Shizuka, the normally stoic Fubuki looking just a bit nervous.

“She’s ready for you, Keiko.” Sayuri said as she and Haruko came upstairs with the freshly-charged Archer and headband in hand.  The former was laid out on the table next to Ayane’s Ninja, while the latter was presented to Keiko, who took it reverently in her hands.
“Are you sure about this, master?” Shizuka asked, prompting a reassuring smile from the gentle human girl.

“Of course.” Keiko replied.  “I’ll be fine, Shizuka, don’t worry.”

Ayane showed her how to activate the band, leading Keiko by example through her first dive.  It was a bit akin to the sensation of suffering an attack of her cataplexy, Keiko thought as her world lurched and her mind was pulled away from her body, drawn into the tiny robot on the table.

Keiko opened her eyes.  By the time she sat up, Ayane and Shizuka had already leapt to her side.

“Are you alright, master?” the frightened Fubuki asked.

Keiko took in a deep breath, feeling the rise and fall of her suddenly far larger chest.

“...Oh, my...~”

A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth, blossoming into a heady grin.  Before the other two girls could react, Keiko sprung up and pulled them both into a hug with an ecstatic cry.

“Mmmph?!”  Both ninjas gave muffled shouts in unison, Keiko acting as if she were unaware of her new bust size and the resulting marshmallow hell that the hug subjected them to.

“It’s wonderful!” she cheered, soon enough releasing the now red-faced Ayane and Shizuka from her grasp.  “I’m sorry, just...the only way to really test it is by celebrating, you know?”

“Ahaha~” Sayuri looked down at the now-tiny girl with a warm smile.  “It seems like it’s working so far, then.  It might be a little too early for you to fight yet, but would you like to come register with us, Cinnamon?”

“Of course!” Keiko replied with an eager smile.  “I would love nothing more~”

<><><>

The arena was as full as the girls had ever seen it when they arrived, all in their tiny forms.  The registration line to add Keiko to their team and change everyone else’s names to their new aliases was thankfully shorter, but AI girls were pouring into the central holosseum by the dozens, converted from a battlefield to a stadium that was rapidly being filled to the brim with attendees.  Arnvals and Gourais pushed jellycan carts up and down the aisles, ensuring everyone was properly fueled up and excited for the events ahead.
Haruko flagged down one of the cart-pushers and passed two cans along to Ayane and Keiko.  “You’ve never had jellycans, right?  Try some~”

The two took the cans for a sip, Ayane a bit more hesitantly than Keiko.  True to its name, she felt a thick gelatin come flowing slowly out of the nozzle, more like yogurt than juice.  The raspberry flavoring was actually rather accurate to the real thing, and as she drank she felt her battery recharge from the fuel.  She could get used to these, Ayane thought, and soon began sucking down the contents of the jellycan without further hesitation.

As the stadium finished filling, the Materia twins acting as the tournament announcers stepped into the central arena.

“Thank you all for attending.” the white member of the pair said with a bow.

“We hope you enjoy the festivities.” the black one said with a matching bow.  “The A Block preliminaries will begin in just a moment.”

“Today’s contenders are...” the white Materia continued as she stood, gesturing up with a hand as a display of the tournament brackets appeared overhead.  There were hundreds of teams, enough for eight rounds.  Three of the quadrants soon disappeared to focus on the last, with Sayuri’s team among them.  They were the fourth match of the day, up against a team consisting of only two members, a Flamberge and a Corsesca.  The tournament rules specified that they had to match the smaller team’s numbers, but they had three rounds before their own match to decide on who would participate.

“You know anything about those two?” Ayane asked the three actual AI girls.

Haruko shrugged.  “I know they’re rare.  They only got produced in limited numbers before Frontline bought out their manufacturer.  Those two might be the only ones of their kind in the city.”

“Both are close-combat models.” Shizuka said. “Flamberge focuses on slashing weapons, Corsesca on piercing weapons.  Both are flight-capable.  This would be a good training opportunity for you, Cocoa.  Master - er, Cinnamon...”  The Fubuki trailed off as she looked over at Keiko, blushing a bit in discomfort at referring to her master by a different name.

Keiko simply giggled.  “I don’t think I’m quite ready for battle yet.  Peppermint, perhaps you should join Cocoa?”

“Hell yeah.”  Haruko grinned at Ayane as she flexed an arm.  “You ready for this?”

Ayane finished gulping down the last of her jellycan.  “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

<><><>

All five girls made their way down to the center stage when the time came for their match.  Their opponents were waiting on the other side of the arena, already decked out in full armor.  Haruko and Ayane called their own armor as they stepped forward, allowing the other three girls to retreat to the sidelines.

“Shall we, Edge?” the Corsesca asked the Flamberge in a quiet near-monotone.

“Let’s do it, Bit!”  The redheaded Flamberge slapped her fist into her palm as she stepped forward, scowling at Haruko and Ayane.

“The preliminary match will now begin.” the Materias announced.  “Team Tiny Heart’s Peppermint and Cocoa versus Team Rare Blade’s Bit and Edge.  Everyone, do your very best~”

This time, Ayane didn’t hesitate in matching the timing of the other three as the stadium fired up.

“Session, go!”

A city street took shape as the arena formed, lined with skyscrapers on both sides.  High ground, Ayane thought as she recalled her new sensei’s lessons, a necessity to reach her flying opponents.  And take flight Bit did the moment the match began, gaining several stories of altitude while Edge rushed towards her opponents with her sword in hand.  Ayane moved to intercept, raising her gauntlets to parry the Flamberge’s opening strike aside rather than block it head-on, as she’d been taught.  Blocking made combat into a test of strength, Shizuka had told her, and they were built for speed.  Parrying took less energy, and if well-timed could force an opening.
That was going to prove difficult, though, Ayane realized, as no sooner had she knocked Edge’s blade aside than six floating swords swept across the path of the first.  She stumbled back just in time to avoid the worst of the chainsaw attack, but felt the second blade nick her body.  Edge pressed the advantage, sweeping her sword upward and forcing Ayane back again to avoid the chain of blades.  The third attempt connected, and Ayane took seven strikes to the chest in rapid succession.  The young ninja was sent flying by the combined force of the attack, falling flat on her back.  Edge’s extra blades fanned out before reattaching to her back, the Flamberge giving a satisfied smirk.

Haruko, meanwhile, had taken the offensive against Bit, following the Corsesca into the air and unloading on her with both of the Hresvelgr’s rifles.  Bit’s expression remained neutral in the face of the onslaught, deflecting most of the shots with her shield as she moved to close the distance between them.  Within seconds she reached Haruko, and with a sudden burst of speed thrust her drill-equipped knee towards Haruko’s midriff.  Haruko just barely had time to block the drill with one of her gunblades, but the victory was short-lived.  The speed of Bit’s drill suddenly accelerated, and Haruko’s eyes widened as her weapon cracked, then shattered.

“Wha-?”

Haruko managed to get out of the way before the drill could carry through to strike her chest, pulling to the side to get out of the way of Bit’s charge.  Once she was safely away, she unleashed a few more shots with her remaining rifle at the Corsesca’s backside, determined not to let her get that close again.
Down on the ground, Edge stalked towards Ayane with a menacing smirk on her face, while the ninja pulled herself to her feet with a groan.  Ayane broke to the left, running for the doorway of the nearest building.  Edge’s smirk morphed into a scowl, and the Flamberge gave chase.  By the time she made it inside, Ayane had disappeared into the aisles of the simulated department store.  Undeterred, Edge fanned her blades out, setting them orbiting around her while casting her gaze from side to side as she made her way deeper into the store.

Ayane held her breath out of reflex as she watched Edge pass the clothing racks, failing to notice the ninja hiding within.  She hadn’t done this since she was a child, but it still came naturally.  She allowed herself to breathe again only when the Flamberge walked away to continue the hunt elsewhere.  It still left the question of how to actually beat her, though.  She was obviously more capable in melee than Ayane was, and had those floating swords to give her the reach advantage.  She needed some way to trip Edge up, but her native weapons weren’t up to the task.  Still, if the simulated environment was this realistic...

Ayane looked over towards the sporting goods section as an idea came to mind.  Maybe she could pull this off after all.

Outside, Haruko was having some issues.  Bit was proving something of a juggernaut, deflecting Haruko’s shots with ease and the Corsesca’s shield shrugging off her rifle rounds while Haruko had no such protection against the particle beams that Bit’s staff could fire back at her.  It was all she could do to shoot back frequently enough to keep her opponent out of melee as they dodged and weaved between buildings, blowing out glass panes and setting rooftops alight with their missed shots.  She could only hope Ayane wasn’t in one of those buildings.

Finally, Haruko’s luck ran out as one of Bit’s beams hit home, forcing her to sacrifice her other gunblade to block it.  The Hresvelgr winced, the explosion still causing her some damage, but more importantly leaving her with only her tail cannon for ranged options.  That was her most powerful weapon, maybe potent enough to take an opponent down in one shot, but it was unwieldy, and if she didn’t do something about Bit’s shield first it wasn’t going to work.  A number of ideas raced through Haruko’s mind for how to handle this task, and she decided to go for the most audacious.

“Alright!  No pain, no gain!” the Hresvelgr declared, as her armor detached and transformed into its airbike configuration.  It was wobbly without the launchers on the sides to act as wings, but she only needed two things from it: to fly in a straight line, and to have a big green sword on the front.

“Try this on for size!”  Haruko stopped dodging and charged, as if to strike Bit with the ornate blade on the airbike’s prow.  The Corsesca allowed herself a faint smirk at this and readied her drill, confident in her ability to tear through it just as easily as she had Haruko’s launchers and rip the Hresvelgr apart.  They made impact, and blade met drill, Haruko roaring with bloodlust as she poured on the thrust while Bit remained silent and simply held her ground.  It was all she needed to do, after all: soon enough Haruko’s blade began to crack just like the launcher before it had, and her own thrust carried it through to rip through the front of the airbike.  The machine fell apart like tissue paper, disintegrating before Bit’s attack could even carry through.

She noticed too late that it hadn’t disintegrated: it had disassembled.  Haruko leapt from the collapsing airbike, grabbing the one piece of it she needed, and Bit gasped as she felt the cannon barrel shoved right up against her chest.

“Get wrecked!” Haruko shouted, and pulled the trigger.  A massive surge of viridian light erupted from the cannon, too close to block and too wide to dodge.  Bit’s eyes went wide, and the world went white.

Even from within the store, Edge heard the thunderous explosion from out on the street, prompting her to turn her head in a panic.

“Bit!”

Ayane struck, leaping from behind a register and hurling a kunai down at Edge.  The Flamberge reacted just in time to slap the blade aside with one of her own, letting it bury itself in the ground at her feet.  Edge scowled at Ayane.  “You!”
A bit of thrust sent Ayane rolling to the side, as she began to dodge and weave around Edge’s storm of remote blades.  Her path took her on a wide circular pattern, looping around Edge once, twice, three times while the angry Flamberge turned to follow her, directing her blades to chase and entrap the ninja.  Ayane suffered more than a few scratches along the way, but pushed through the pain.  If they could handle it, she told herself, so could she.

“Give it up and stop running already!” Edge snarled, and Ayane seemingly obeyed as she skidded to a stop and ducked, two of Edge’s swords sailing just over her head and crashing into the ground in front of her.  There was something in her hand, Edge realized, but too late recognized it for what it was: a spool of fishing line, tied to the handle of Ayane’s kunai and now woven around Edge’s legs.  Ayane pulled with all her strength, and the Flamberge was yanked off her feet.

Ayane dashed forward, tanto at the ready, and dug the blade as hard as she could into Edge’s midriff the way Shizuka had taught her.  It was just hard enough, just fast enough, to bring Edge’s lifebar down to zero moments before the remotes could turn around and cut Ayane to ribbons.  Instead they dropped lifelessly to the ground behind her as their owner passed out.  Immediately the cityscape vanished, returning them all to the colosseum set with Bit, Edge, and Haruko all collapsed on the ground.  Ayane was the last girl standing.

“Winner: Team Tiny Heart!” the stadium computer declared, provoking a cheer from the audience.  Ayane ran over to the fallen trio and Haruko in particular, trying to shake her awake.

“Peppermint!” the ninja called, prompting a groan from the Hresvelgr as she opened her eyes after a few seconds.

“Oof...remind me not to do that so high up next time...”

Ayane let out a sigh of relief, even as their opponents stirred not long after Haruko.

“Hey, you.” Edge said, propping herself up on her elbows and looking at Ayane.  Her expression was still surly, but with a hint of satisfaction.  “That...wasn’t a bad trick you pulled.  Let’s do this again sometime; I won’t fall for it again.”

“Hah...sure thing.”  Ayane reached out to her opponent with a hand, who gave it a weak shake.

Soon enough the fallen contestants got back on their feet so they could stagger off the stage, Ayane supporting Haruko with an arm around her shoulder.  The moment they were back on the sidelines, Sayuri and Keiko pounced on them for a group hug, the latter dragging a flustered Shizuka along.

“That was awesome~!” Keiko cheered, all but smothering Ayane in the hug.  Shizuka couldn’t help but smile, both at her master’s display of energy and at her student’s success.

“You did well, Cocoa.” the Fubuki said, prompting a blushing Ayane to give the closest thing to a bow she could while in the midst of being hugged.

“T-Thank you, sensei.”

“You did great too, Peppermint.” Sayuri said as she gave Haruko a proud smile.  “Want to stick around and watch the other matches, or are you two ready to go home?”

“I think I’ve had enough for one day.” Haruko replied.  The Hresvelgr gave a sheepish grin as she looked at the wrecked remains of her gear.

“I need to repair my...well, everything.”